General Election live: Keir Starmer at Downing Street for first Cabinet meeting as Angela…

Forget the actual result, the election has thrown up all sorts of winners and losers, from Larry the Downing Street cat to JK Rowling. Here’s our none-too-rigorous guide to who should be celebrating today and who should be commiserating:

And here comes Shabana Mahmood at Downing Street, after she was appointed Justice Secretary by Sir Keir Starmer yesterday:

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has arrived back at 10 Downing Street – this time without an umbrella, and carrying her red Government folder.

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has now arrived at Downing Street, alongside Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds.

Speaking to reporters, Mr Miliband said: ‘It’s good to be back.’

As Cabinet ministers continue to arrive, more items are being taken out of Downing Street by removal men – including furniture and ornaments:

Labour Party chair Anneliese Dodds walks outside Downing Street on the day of the first cabinet meeting.

Yesterday, she held the seat Oxford East, which she has represented since 2017.

Suella Braverman said this morning that there were ‘no announcements’ on the Tory leadership race.

The former home secretary is expected to throw her hat into the ring in the contest to replace Rishi Sunak, who said he would quit as leader once formal arrangements were in place to select his successor.

Asked whether she would be the next Tory leader, Ms Braverman (pictured yesterday, below) told broadcasters outside her home today: ‘No announcements. We’ve just got to take our time, we’ve got to figure out what the situation is.’

She continued: ‘It’s been a really bad result. There’s no two ways about it. Hundreds of excellent Tory MPs have been kicked out of office.’

She went on to criticise Sir Keir Starmer for planning to axe the Rwanda deportation scheme, saying: ‘Years of hard work, acts of Parliament, millions of pounds been spent on a scheme which had it been delivered properly would have worked.

‘But there are big problems on the horizon which will be I’m afraid caused by Keir Starmer.’

A flurry of Cabinet ministers are now filing into Downing Street for the first meeting of Sir Keir Starmer’s government.

The latest to arrive is Transport Secretary Louise Haigh, who has just walked in.

Asked by reporters when the railways would be nationalised, Ms Haigh said: ‘As soon as possible.’

Number 10 could be plunged into cat-astrophe over fears of a feud between Chief Mouser Larry and Keir Starmer’s moggy JoJo when the new Prime Minister moves his family in to the Downing Street residence.

Here’s the full story on MailOnline:

Ellie Reeves, who held the Labour seat for Lewisham West and East Dulwich yesterday, has now arrived at Downing Street:

The latest arrival at Downing Street is the new Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology is Peter Kyle:

Wes Streeting, the new Health and Social Care Secretary, has now arrived at Downing Street ahead of the new Government’s first Cabinet meeting.

Mr Streeting told reporters this morning: ‘We’re getting straight to work.’

It comes after the Labour politician said in his first statement in the post yesterday that the NHS is ‘broken’ and ‘patients are being failed on a daily basis’.

Mr Streeting said that the service is ‘going through the biggest crisis in its history’ and it cannot be fixed overnight. But he pledged to start the work to try and resolve the issues ‘today’.

The Labour Government is poised to scrap the Rwanda scheme just as it was finally ready for take-off, to the delight of migrants waiting to cross the Channel.

In a tent encampment in woodland near Dunkirk last night, migrants said it was ‘amazing news’ that the new UK Government will abandon the programme.

Read the full story from Daily Mail reporter Neil Sears in Grande-Synthe:

Environment Secretary Steve Reed has now arrived at Downing Street ahead of the new Government’s first Cabinet meeting.

Mr Reed smiled and chatted briefly with members of the media as he walked into No.10 this morning.

Removal men are now taking posters and prints out of Downing Street – with this one appearing to be ‘Who Cares Wins’ by Harland Miller:

Rishi Sunak’s neighbours have said they are excited to see more of the former Prime Minister and his ‘lovely’ wife Akshata Murty after they were booted from No 10 yesterday following a Labour landslide.

People living in the tiny North Yorkshire village of Kirby Sigston claimed that the ousted premier, who lives in a private late-Georgian house in the area, is ‘too nice to be a politician’.

Here’s the full story on MailOnline:

The latest item to be removed from Downing Street this morning is this harp, which was taken away by a worker before being loaded into a van.

Whatever could we see next?!

We are now just under an hour away from the start of a recount this morning in the last remaining undeclared seat in the 2024 General Election.

Despite an initial count on Thursday night and a recount yesterday, the result of the contest in Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire remains undecided.

A further recount is due to commence at 10.30am, with the SNP’s Drew Hendry locked in a close battle with Liberal Democrat candidate Angus MacDonald.

The seat is expected to become the Liberal Democrats’ sixth in Scotland.

This graphic from today’s Daily Mail displays a series of interesting statistics following Labour’s landslide victory in the General Election this week:

The Keir Starmer era is kicking off today as the new PM meets his Cabinet after the dramatic election triumph

Sir Keir will gather his senior ministers in Downing Street on his first full day, as well as holding a press conference around lunchtime.

Read the full story from MailOnline’s political editor James Tapsfield:

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has now been seen walking outside Downing Street and putting up her umbrella again, on the day of the first Cabinet meeting with Sir Keir Starmer:

Sir Alan Campbell has been seen stepping out of a car at 10 Downing Street this morning after being appointed by Sir Keir Starmer as Chief Whip:

Munira Wilson, education spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats, told Sky News this morning that the Conservatives will be ‘tearing themselves apart’ working out a new leader and what direction they are going in, but Lib Dem MPs will be ‘focused’ on being an opposition party.

She said: ‘It’s really important for the British people that there are opposition MPs asking tough questions and scrutinising the legislation that Labour are going to bring forward, and I can assure you that every Liberal Democrat MP in the House of Commons will be doing that and will be focused on the job and not worried about where the party’s going.’

She told Sky News the Lib Dems surpassed everyone’s expectations, ‘including my own’, and that the party hopes to bring its record number of MPs up from 71 to 72 after the recount in the final seat to declare – Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire.

As the new Cabinet members arrive this morning, one feline has also been patiently waiting to be let into Number 10.

Larry, Britain’s mouse-catcher in chief and long time resident at the leader’s official residence, has just been pictured waiting outside the famous black door.

Larry was recruited by David Cameron to tackle rats seen scuttling close to the leader’s official residence, and entered Downing Street in February 2011.

Munira Wilson, the education spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats, has acknowledged this morning that the party benefited from voters wanting to turf out a Conservative government.

The Twickenham MP told Sky News today: ‘We were very clear that after the previous Conservative government, which was frankly full of chaos and incompetence and had broken the trust of the British people and broken our economy, time was up for them and in many of those seats where we won we made it very clear to voters that if they wanted to turf out the Tories they had to vote Liberal Democrat and they did.

‘So obviously in every election it’s a combination of the two, but I am also confident that our messages around cost-of-living, sewage, health and care did really resonate with voters.’

The Green Party quadrupled its number of MPs and came second in 47 constituencies on its most successful election night in history.

Co-leaders Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay overturned huge majorities to take seats from Labour and the Conservatives.

This morning, Mr Ramsay was on BBC Breakfast and said his party will push Labour on policies over environmental issues and public services:

Rachel Reeves has arrived at Downing Street this morning after being confirmed yesterday as Britain’s first woman chancellor:

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has just been spotted arriving for the first Cabinet meeting with Sir Keir Starmer at Downing Street this morning:

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has been spotted arriving at the rear of Downing Street this morning, as he prepares to hold his first Cabinet meeting.

Earlier, we brought you photos of a removal van arriving at Dowing Street.

Now, workers from the firm – Bishop’s Move – have been spotted carrying boxes and furniture to the van, as Rishi Sunak moves out and Keir Starmer moves in.

These are the main events that happened during the General Election results night:

• With 649 of the 650 Commons seats declared, Labour has a majority of 176
• Labour has 412 seats and the Tories 121 – worst result in the party’s history.
• Former prime minister Liz Truss lost to Labour in South West Norfolk
• A record 12 ministers who sat around the Cabinet table were ousted
• Penny Mordaunt, Grant Shapps, Mark Harper & Johnny Mercer lost to Labour
• Gillian Keegan, Alex Chalk and Lucy Frazer lost to the Liberal Democrats
• Tory chairman Richard Holden won by just 20 votes in Basildon and Billericay
• Outgoing chancellor Jeremy Hunt held off challengers in Godalming and Ash
• Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn held on to his seat as an independent
• Reform UK leader Nigel Farage won as his Reform UK party got five seats
• Greens got four seats, while Lib Dems achieved record result with 71 MPs

The moment is seared on my mind, not to mention captured in a thousand videos on social media, writes MICHAEL PORTILLO. It shows me in the small hours of May 2, 1997 – 3.01am to be precise – standing alongside my fellow election candidates, with my features arranged into as neutral an expression as I could muster.

Read his thoughts on what became known as the ‘Portillo moment’, a metaphor for a sudden, significant change in political fortunes:

Sir Keir Starmer’s victory was branded a ‘loveless landslide’ after analysis showed just one in five of the electorate had backed Labour. Here is the full data:

Britons have revealed why they had turned their backs on the Conservatives and their hopes for positive change after Labour’s landslide General Election victory.

MailOnline spoke to voters in a number of seats gained by Labour or the Liberal Democrats, with many explaining why they had decided not to vote Tory:

Also on the agenda today is the England men’s football team’s crunch Euro 2024 quarter-final against Switzerland in Dusseldorf at 5pm.

And England manager Gareth Southgate has wished Sir Keir Starmer well – but stopped short of offering any tips to survive in the public eye.

The match will be Southgate’s 100th as England boss since he took the reins, initially on an interim basis, in 2016. That run has seen him outlast four British prime ministers, with Sir Keir now the fifth.

Asked if he had any advice for Starmer and who he thought had the tougher of the two jobs, Southgate replied: ‘Well, I’m not envious of his job. No, I don’t have any advice.

‘I think when you’re in a position of responsibility, as I am, you realise that advice comes from every direction. Everybody has a simple solution to complex problems, so I’m sure he’s going to be inundated with that sort of feel.

‘Yeah, having been in the role I have, the one thing I would do is not be offering any additional issues for him by speaking publicly about anything, so I wish him well.

‘We want a strong country. We all want the best possible conditions in the UK and whoever is in charge, whichever government is in charge, that’s what we all desire.’

This is the story of the last few days in the bunker of a disastrous Tory campaign as it lurched from one crisis to another, as told by Andrew Pierce:

The new Cabinet will meet for the first time this morning.

Appointments of junior ministers are likely to continue, as will calls from world leaders and first ministers of the devolved nations. Legislative priorities and the timing of any major policy announcements will also need to be worked out.

Sir Keir Starmer has signalled that at least three housing announcements could be made in the first two weeks of a Labour Government.

‘The Government has got to show that it’s taking charge immediately, and doing what’s necessary,’ Lord Robin Butler, who oversaw the transition as cabinet secretary when Labour swept into power in 1997, said.

Decisions such as allocating office space in No 10 – ill-suited to be a modern workplace with its maze-like layout – ‘have got to be decided on the first weekend because they’re necessary in order for people to start working’.

Sir Keir’s chief of staff, Sue Gray, who spent years at the top of the Civil Service, will likely be involved in decisions about how the Prime Minister will work, how the centre of Government will be set up and his diary for the first few days – some of which will have been agreed in access talks.

The Labour leader’s expected attendance at the Nato leaders’ summit next week will also require briefings to be readied and decisions to be made about which officials should accompany him.

More than 5,000 days have passed since Labour were last in Government.

But Keir Starmer wasted no time in laying down the first tentative steps towards change yesterday as he selected his cabinet and assured voters he would begin to rebuild trust with a ‘country-first, party-second’ brand of politics.

Here, MailOnline looks at Labour’s first day back in power:

Here’s a graphic in today’s Daily Mail showing the new House of Commons:

A photographer has spotted a removal van from ‘Bishop’s Move’ arriving at the rear of Downing Street this morning as Sir Keir Starmer moves into Number 10:

Just days after his appointment, Sir Keir Starmer will be propelled onto the international stage, jetting to Washington DC for the Nato leaders’ summit, where discussions will include support for Ukraine.

He is also due to host the European Political Community summit in the UK on July 18.

The Prime Minister has already spoken to US President Joe Biden and discussed their commitment to the special relationship between the UK and US, protecting the gains of the Good Friday Agreement and support for Ukraine.

Sir Keir also spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and reassured him of the ‘unwavering commitment’ and said the UK would continue supplying defensive support.

He had calls with the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

He also talked to Irish premier Simon Harris, who accepted an invitation to visit Downing Street on July 17 and Scottish First Minister John Swinney.

Pat McFadden, who played a central role in shaping Labour’s election campaign and was named Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, said the new Cabinet would meet today.

He told BBC Radio 4 that Sir Keir Starmer would have to quickly allocate responsibilities and ‘give his new Cabinet their marching orders and then there’s big international events coming.

‘We have a Nato summit next week. That will be his first moment on the international stage. And while he’s doing that, he will want his new Cabinet to get on with it pretty quickly.’

He said high on Sir Keir’s agenda will be the six first steps Labour has set out: delivering economic stability, cutting NHS waiting times, launching a new border security command, setting up Great British Energy, cracking down on anti-social behaviour, and recruiting 6,500 new teachers.

In his first speech on Downing Street yesterday, Sir Keir said the British people had voted ‘decisively for change’.

He said the country could ‘move forward together’ as Labour took office following 14 years of Conservative rule.

Read his full speech on MailOnline here:

A recount in the last remaining undeclared seat in the 2024 General Election will begin this morning, amidst reports the SNP candidate has already conceded defeat.

Despite an initial count on Thursday night and a recount yesterday, the result of the contest in Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire remains undecided.

A further recount is due to commence at 10.30am, with the SNP’s Drew Hendry locked in a close battle with Liberal Democrat candidate Angus MacDonald.

The BBC reported last night that Mr Hendry had conceded defeat ahead of the count, and that the seat is expected to become the Liberal Democrats’ sixth in Scotland.

This would come as a further blow to the SNP in what has been a bruising election for the nationalists, having lost 39 of the 48 seats they won in 2019, mainly to a resurgent Labour.

After 649 of the 650 Commons seats had been declared, Labour had a majority of 176.

Labour had 412 seats and the Tories 121, the worst result in the Conservative Party’s history.

The Liberal Democrats won 71 seats, while Reform netted five.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is expected to hold the first meeting of his new Cabinet today as he looks to start working on Labour’s manifesto pledges and preparing for a Nato summit next week.

Sir Keir made a raft of appointments on his first day at Number 10 and spoke with international leaders, including US President Joe Biden.

The Prime Minister confirmed Rachel Reeves as Britain’s first woman chancellor, Yvette Cooper as Home Secretary and David Lammy as Foreign Secretary.

Angela Rayner officially became his Deputy Prime Minister and retained the levelling up, housing and communities brief.

John Healey was named Defence Secretary; Shabana Mahmood Justice Secretary; Wes Streeting Health Secretary; Bridget Phillipson Education Secretary; and Ed Miliband Energy Secretary.

Today’s Daily Mail leads with the headline: ‘Now he has to deliver’. The front page also declares Labour’s 34 per cent of the vote as a ‘Loveless Landslide’:

We’ll start with a look at today’s top story on MailOnline – which is that Tory members have bemoaned of a ‘Boris-shaped hole’ in the party and are a demanding a candidate to challenge Nigel Farage and succeed Rishi Sunak as the party’s leader:

Good morning and welcome to MailOnline’s live coverage on Saturday morning after Sir Keir Starmer took the keys to Downing Street.

Voters handed Labour a landslide victory in the General Election as Sir Keir took over from Rishi Sunak, who vacated No 10 after the Conservatives suffered a crushing defeat after 14 years in power.

Stay with MailOnline’s election liveblog throughout today for all the latest updates.